Cinnamon Toast Bread Pudding #SundaySupper #CookForJulia

8.05.2012

Our Sunday Supper table today is honoring the incomparable JuliaChildand I´m sitting down to have brunch with her and this wonderful recipe that
combines the perennial favorite that is cinnamon toast with a vanilla custard,
resulting in a sweet and creamy bread pudding. A recipe from the great Julia of course.

Most countries have their own way of using leftover
bread. Whether in a pudding, toast, sweet or savory, the daily bread is used to
it´s last crumb. And most countries have their own JC; ours is of course Doña Petrona.

Bread pudding can be very good if done with the right
ingredients and flavors. The combination here is simple, just like comfort food
is, the kind childhood memories are made of.

It starts with white bread that is slathered with
butter and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. It´s broiled so it becomes a
caramelized toast. How can that not be good as a first layer in a bread
pudding?

I used plain challah. I made one after the gruyere version, and it was perfect for this recipe, being a bit richer than regular
white sandwich bread. So the caramelized slices of bread are cut in pieces and
arranged in a neat pattern on a buttered dish. The `neat´ just keeps eluding me on occasions such as this. As I always tell you, I´m rustic, I´m all for the
flavor, or so I tell myself.

Then there´s a custard to be made the traditional way,
though the eggs and sugar are beaten to the ribbon stage, which makes this a
very fluffy mixture. Maybe I went a bit overboard here, since I was broiling
the bread slices at the same time that I had the eggs in the stand mixer, and
when I added the hot milk to it I might, just might, have forgotten it for a
few minutes, while the very dutiful mixer continued to do it´s job.

So yes, the result was a whole lot of yellow foamy
custard. But the bubbles diminish, eventually. And when it was time to cover
the toasts, the amount of custard turned out to be a bit much. So I was left
with a cup of crème anglaise, for what are eggs + sugar + hot milk cooked over
the stove but crème anglaise right? So I added a few tablespoons of bourbon to
it and had the most wonderful sauce to go with the bread pudding.

I also sprinkled a few tablespoons sugar on top, after the pudding was fully cooked, and broiled it a few minutes. I think Julia would´ve approved, both the crunchy top and the bourbon in the sauce. I did, it was just the finishing touch it needed. This is a great brunch dish that will be a crowd pleaser.

I don´t own any of Julia´s books. Shame on me. It´s
just an unexplainable thing considering the amount of cookbooks I own.

I love that you all are honoring Julia. And I hope to plow through all these Posts some time this Summer. If you read my FFWD this week, you know I love cinnamon sugar so this recipe is right up my alley. A little rich but I could cough it down, for sure. Everything about this dish was flavorful, perfectly made from scratch, and very, Julia.